MIT researchers develop a new technique which can speed up optical quantum computers

MIT researchers have come up with a new device which gives more control over signals in quantum computers. It is called a "quantum gate", and allows photons with particular properties to pass through it. The non-eligible photons are reflected back. Previously, physicists have enabled photon-photon interaction by cooling rare elements at low temperature in recent years. But in the latest issue of Physical Review Letters, researchers from MIT have described a new technique to enable photon-photon interaction at room temperature.

According to one of the researchers Dirk Englund, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, "All of these approaches that had atoms or atom-like particles require low temperatures and work over a narrow frequency band. It’s been a holy grail to come up with methods to realize single-photon-level nonlinearities at room temperature under ambient conditions."

Enuglund emphasised that the new research will not provide a working quantum computer in immediate future but the research can be used for other applications, such as providing a reliable source of single photons which will help many researchers to take a forward leap in their research. This experiment was successful at room temperature which is better than conventional methods of getting the signals.